Monday, November 18, 2013

The beauty of a problem

Karma in Sanskrit means work, but it also has a deeper meaning if you attempt to elaborate it. The word is pretty popular among Hindus, they believe in Karma - work, Dharma - righteousness, and then Satya - the truth. It is interesting to see an analogy i.e, Karma being the mind, Dharma the heart and Satya being a true combination of mind and heart. It is a fact that mind and heart, though separate, function together for an optimal solution for a given problem. Why do I mention about problem here? Because simply, we are all problem solvers. When we look at life in a way we define it as problems and solutions, it becomes a simplistic view of life. Meaning, we either create problems and we solve them or we solve problems created by others, that is all we do throughout our lives.

So, how can everything be a problem? Let us start. A person is born to solve the problem of continuation. It is a fact that if the current generation ceases to reproduce, there will be no humans left. So, agree or not, we were born to solve the problem of continuation. Each one of us is a great warrior taking the responsibility of the whole generation to create a future for coming generations. Next, we need to survive, because our body is so made that we need to eat and drink. For at least now, we cannot imagine life without food because I do not know what the future holds. What if a great scientist finds out a way we never needed food. Isn't it interesting to imagine a life without food, when you never need to eat or drink. Then we won't have to spend time cooking, cleaning dishes, partying, we won't have digestive tract, we will have different mechanisms that we get energy, perhaps like solar panels, we might get energy from the sun, maybe we will be like cyborgs, maybe not, who knows, this is a crazy world already. For now, we need to eat to survive, so solve this problem of the crazy stomach first. How? Have a field to grow food, farm animals, but wait, you might not have any. You can barter it, oh no, it is so difficult to barter, lets's create something handy and call it money. So then, money was made to make life easier, a universal thing used to trade things. But of course, we trade emotions, love, and what not for money. It is another discussion to see whether money solved our problem or not.

With money, came a flurry of ideas, businesses, jobs, economies, markets and the financial palaces of the modern world. But still after centuries of prosperity, billions are still fighting to solve the second problem -food. If we think deeply, these two problems cover all the problems that we have in this world. Why do you have to work so hard? Stomach, continuation. Why do you have to party? To enjoy, to have a healthy life, to stay alive - continuation.

How actually does a problem comes into existence? Because of the circumstances? So isn't it the circumstances that creates a problem? Its more like a chicken and an egg situation. Problem takes its form when you are unprepared, or you have no idea about its solution or existence. For example, fixing a laptop can be a problem to one but a child's play to another. Won't it be fascinating to image the creation of the universe is this perspective? Why would the universe be created? Why would the problem of continuation be preceded by the root problem of "the beginning"? Ok, we create generations to solve the problem of continuation, so "the beginning" must have happened to solve an existing problem. When there was nothing in existence, why would there be a problem? Maybe, that was the problem - there was nothing there, so something needed to be done to let "the beginning" happen.

It sure solved the emptiness, but did it actually solve something more? Further, why was beginning and continuation so important?